Monday, 7 January 2013

2013 Australian Open - Ikeda and Khenkin lead

At the halfway point of the 2013 Australian Open, FM Junta Ikeda and GM Igor Khenkin share the lead with 5.5/6. In round 5 ther drew a marathon 100 move game, and have won all their other games. Trailing by half a point is a group of 4 players, GM Zong Yuan Zhao, IM Max Illingworth, FM Bobby Cheng and WGM Irine Sukandar.
In todays round Ikeda defeated IM George Xie after finding a neat middlegame tactic. Khenkin did the same against IM Andrew Brown, when Brown overlooked a little combination which won a pawn. Zhao and Cheng had some interesting moments, before they agreed to a draw.
Tomorrow sees the all GM clash of Khenkin v Zhao on board 1, while Illingworth and Ikeda play on the second board.